


Brown, Blue, Black

by Owlwithafringe



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Bin Day, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 06:10:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3925783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlwithafringe/pseuds/Owlwithafringe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which it is bin day and no-one idea which bin it is to put out. Merlin thinks it's Blue Bin Day (the bins that have glass and tins in it) whilst Arthur thinks its Brown Bin Day (paper and cardboard). A little bet strikes up between the two neighbors, but who wins?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brown, Blue, Black

Merlin stared at his standard issue council bins with the sort of ferocity reserved for an Olympic runner who was eyeing up the finish line.

It was bin day - well one of them anyway. The council had enforced a new system for bin collecting: Instead of having just one bin to pick up, they'd categorized different bins for different purposes. The brown bin was for paper and cardboard, the blue bin was for glass and tins and the black bin was for general household waste. It was in an effort to encourage recycling and saving the environment and all that, except now that they had three different bin collecting days for three different bins it meant there was now three times as many dustbin lorry fumes polluting the atmosphere which sort of defeated the purpose of the whole exercise.

Normally Merlin would applaud the innovative thinking of the whole scheme despite the whole lorry fume part, being the little eco warrior that he was, except Merlin couldn't remember what colour of bin day it was and naturally he'd misplaced the timetable that he had been posted through his door.

With a final nod and clenched jaw, Merlin grabbed the blue bin and marched down the drive way with it. His gut was telling him it was a Blue Day and his gut was never wrong, apart from the time Merlin had eaten questionable leftover Chinese takeout. His gut had been wrong in all manners of the word that day.

Merlin parked his bin on the side of the curb ready to be collected. The steady rumble of plastic on concrete next door revealed Merlin's neighbor was also putting his bin out. A quick glance showed a mirror image of Merlin's garden, the only difference being his neighbor's bin was brown. Shit. Merlin looked to where his neighbor had paused, who was currently staring at Merlin's bin with the same look of horror that Merlin was sporting. 

The blonde man, Arthur Merlin vaguely remembered his name to be, eye's snapped up to meet Merlin's with a look of question in his eyes. Merlin grinned and shrugged sheepishly. "Lose your timetable too?"

Arthur shook his head with confusion, muttering to himself. "I could have sworn it was Brown Day." Arthur looked back at Merlin, though his eyes quickly slipped past Merlin to behind him. With a louder voice he nodded to Merlin to look behind him. "Guess we weren't the only ones." 

Merlin turned to peer down the street behind him. Most of the houses had their bins out front already, the only difference being that half of them were brown and the other half, blue. Merlin frowned with a mixture of amusement and puzzlement as he noted the neighbor on his left side's bin. He turned back to Arthur, who was resting against the dividing fence, with a grin as he gestured at his other neighbor's bin. "I like how Gwen's decided to be original and put the black one out. Though i'm positive it's Blue Day."

"Well if you're so confident, then you won't be opposed to a little bet then?" Arthur challenged, leaning forward against the fence.

Merlin paused for a moment to consider the consequences of a bet. When he couldn't think of any, he nodded hesitantly, interested to see what Arthur had in mind. "Not at all. State your terms."

"How about if you win I take you out on a date. If I win, you take me out on a date."

_"What?"_

"Seems like a win-win to me. Either way you get the pleasure of my company." Arthur pulled back from the fence and crossed his arms, taking on a nonchalant pose. "Unless that is.. you're chicken?"

Merlin eyed Arthur for a moment before coming to a decision. "You're on."

Arthur smirked. "Excellent. I guess we'll find out the winner later then."

Merlin nodded in agreement. "So.. See you later?"

"Later." Arthur confirmed.

With that Merlin and Arthur both disappeared back into their houses, their doors both closing as one, both eagerly anticipating for the dustbin lorry to come by, like children waiting for the ice cream van. 

\-------

It turns out they were both wrong - it was Black Bin Day. 

They went on the date anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> This little fic was inspired by what i'm referring to as the 'bin incident' on Corrie the other night, which i thought could be really funny with these characters. Also holy crap i'm rusty at writing.
> 
> Also, super sorry for not writing anything for over two months. My laptop broke and then i had to wait to get a new one, and then my new one broke (i had it less than a month) so i'm having to wait for it to be fixed (i'm on my mum's laptop right now). On my old laptop i have a lot of half finished fics that will be finished when i eventually transfer them to a working computer. 
> 
> I've also had a lot of stress to deal with, with exams and revision and some personal stuff as well so i just haven't had time or want to write. But i'll start wring again properly soon. I still have some big fics planned, and some smaller one shots. I have four prompts in my ask box as well that i'm writing at the moment so they'll be posted at some point too. 
> 
> Feel free to drop by Tumblr, [Owlwithafringe](http://owlwithafringe.tumblr.com/) and leave a prompt in my ask (Make sure to read my Fanfic page first though, to find out what ships I write for.)
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me though. Comments and kudos on this fic encourage me write more, so feel free to leave some and I hope you enjoyed the fic.


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